By Allan Fox: Undefeated light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) weighed in successfully on Thursday in coming in at 174.2 pounds for his match against Isidro Pietro (26-1-3, 22 KOs) on Friday night at the Lac Leamy Casino in Gatineau, Quebec.
Pietro weighed in at 173.8lbs. Beterbiev will be defending his WBA NABA 175lb title against the #7 WBO Pietro. Beterbiev needs to beat Pietro to stay in position for a title shot against the winner of the Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev rematch.
Beterbiev will be fighting for the second time since coming off a shoulder injury, which caused him to be out of action for a year. Beterbiev came back last June to defeat Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna by a 4th round knockout victory in a massacre in Montreal, Canada. Maderna was down 4 times in the fight. Two of the knockdowns occurred in the 3rd and the other two in the 4th. The fight was stopped after the second knockdown of the 4th. Beterbiev looked good for a fighter who’d been out of the ring for as long as he’d been.
Pietro is a good fighter, but he’s not beaten anyone good enough for you to take notice and give him a chance against Beterbiev on Friday night. That’s the whole problem. Pietro does not have the experience or the track record to assume that he’s going to do well in this fight.
Pietro was beaten by Eleider Alvarez last year in August in losing a 12 round unanimous decision. It wasn’t a close decision defeat for Pietro. He was totally dominated by Alvarez from start to finish in losing by wide scores.
Beterbiev has big things ahead of him in 2017 in fighting the winner of the Ward-Kovalev fight. If Ward chooses to vacate his titles instead of fighting Kovalev, then Beterbiev and Kovalev could wind up facing each other for the three titles. The reason I mention Ward vacating his belts is because he’s talked about retiring lately if his fight negotiations with Kovalev don’t make sense. Beterbiev would then be fighting Kovalev for the titles if Ward vacates. Beterbiev has the fighting style to beat Ward if that fight ever happens.
Beterbiev has looked great in his last three fights against Maderna, Alexander Johnson and Gabriel Campillo. He just had too much power for all three of those fighters. The one fight where Beterbiev looked a little shaky was against Jeff Page Jr., who dropped him with a counter right hand in round 1 of that fight.
Beterbiev came back strong in round 2 to knocked Page Jr. down three times on the inside with short power punches to the head. It was impressive by Beterbiev. He showed how powerful he is in close with short, chopping shots. Page Jr. used a lot of movement and showed very hand speed for a light heavyweight. There aren’t too many fighters in the division with the kind of mobility and speed that Page Jr. showed against Beterbiev.
Pietro is more of a slower slugger, and he’s pretty much made to order for Beterbiev. If Pietro can make it the full 12 round distance, it would be impressive. I doubt that he can though.